The first step is to separate the University of Minnesota’s Health Sciences from Fairview. This will allow Fairview to pursue any mergers or combinations that improve its ability to provide high-quality medical care to Minnesotans without the thorny issue of who controls the University’s medical center.

The second step is to foster closer ties between the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic. My specific proposal is that the State of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic enter into an agreement in which the state will finance infrastructure on the scale that Mayo requires in order carry out its $5 billion Rochester expansion. In return, Mayo and the University will do the following:

The medical schools at the University of Minnesota and Mayo will merge and become a single institution with campuses in Minneapolis and Rochester.

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities health sciences programs will merge with those at University of Minnesota-Rochester. The latter are already collaborative programs with Mayo, and thus the merged program can leverage these connections.

University of Minnesota Hospitals and Physicians will join with the Mayo Clinic Health System to create a network of clinics both within Minnesota and in other states.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.